Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Saturday's Math Strand @ Educon-Takeaways

Though there wasn't an announced math strand for those interested in math education, it turned out that most of the sessions that had math as a key word in their titles or descriptions were on Friday. Here's the three that I attended:
Session 1 - SLA students and teachers presented examples of math projects students worked on. They are just in the beginning stages. Worth following their goals. Chris Lehman's blog about math inversion is worth noting here.
Then, [math] class, rather than being a time when all kids sat and received the instruction, could be the time when they reinforce skills by doing problem sets, worked on real-world application projects, collaborated with teachers to reinforce concepts, etc... in some ways, it's an inversion of what we traditionally think of as a math class. Right now, in traditional classrooms, class is where the teacher demonstrates concepts (often with some time for individual reinforcement and work), but the bulk of application / practice / etc... is done at home where there isn't much chance for help. If we use technology to invert that idea, so that kids could watch the teacher's demonstration of the skills and concepts at home (and with the ability to rewind when necessary,) we could allow kids the opportunity to apply and practice their knowledge in the space where they can get help, collaborate, etc... doesn't that make more sense? -blog entry
Projects could be something that students can plan, review, and revise with classmates and teachers in the classroom. The bulk of work could be done outside of school hours. This is doable if the project development is well coached.


To be continued...

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